Project F
by Mewone
Summary: When Sonic discovers a six year old purple fox on the beach, he discovers that she has no memory of her past life. Now, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and their new friend Fuchsia must try to unlock Fuchsia's past: the secret of Project F. T for VIOLENCE ONLY. Some SonAmy, but expect it to be WAAAAAAY in the background.
1. Fuchsia

**This is Mewone speaking, and would like to thank PenFullofChaos819 for inspiration with his story Rise Only to Fall. The story is set a little after the events of Sonic Unleashed.**

**Note: Mewone does not own any of the Sonic characters besides OCs. I also do not own Sega (sadly).**

* * *

><p><em>"Come on," <em>Sonic thought as he waited on the beaches of Seaside Hill Zone, _"what's taking Tails so long to get here?"_

As if Sonic's thoughts had summoned him, Tails appeared clad in a life jacket, driving a sleek, blue racing boat. The boat had various ridges on the edges, no doubt mimicking Sonic's blue quills.

"Took you long enough!" Sonic yelled to Tails over the roar of the boat. He then pointed to the boat Tails had commandeered. "What the heck is this thing?"

"Don't you remember?" Tails yelled back. "This is the new invention I was telling you about! I call it the Waterspout Mk. I!"

Sonic just shook his head over the chosen name.

"Well, come on!" Tails said, chucking a life jacket in Sonic's direction. "Do you want to see how this thing works or not?"

"Yeah, whatever!" Sonic said, sliding the jacket overtop of his quills, being careful not to get them stuck in the foam. Once he strapped it on tightly, he leaped onto the Waterspout and landed cleanly into one of the seats. "Let's get this party started, already!"

With that, Tails punched the throttle, sending the Waterspout forward as if it had been launched out of a cannon. Sonic wasn't prepared for the craft to accelerate so quickly, and was almost thrown off.

"Whoa!" Sonic yelled in surprise. "I thought I was the only one who could accelerate that quickly!"

"Not anymore!" Tails said with a smirk.

* * *

><p>Within minutes, Sonic had gotten used to the extremely high speeds of the Waterspout, and he propped his foot up on the windshield in front of him. He then started to casually look around at the beautiful scenery: the nearly cloudless sky, the ruins of the adjacent Ocean Palace Zone, and the sparkling beaches parallel to them.<p>

It was while Sonic was looking at those beaches that he saw something that caught his eye on the sand, being gently washed by the waves. It was difficult to see, due to its small size and the Waterspout's high speeds, but it seemed out of place. Sonic quickly started to rule out what the object could NOT be. It wasn't driftwood. It wasn't a fish or other sea-life. It wasn't a Power Ring. It wasn't even a spare part from one of Eggman's or Tails' machines. It was… something else.

Not something.

_Someone_.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled as he stood up from his seat. "Hit the brakes!" Without waiting for a response, Sonic reached across Tails' arms and jammed the throttle into full reverse.

The effect was instant.

The twin engines screamed in pain as the momentum was killed instantly, sending the nose of the craft plunging into the water. This sent a gigantic wave of sea-spray straight into Tails and Sonic, nearly sweeping them overboard.

"SONIC!" a dripping wet Tails yelled, rather miffed at Sonic's unscheduled stop. "What did you do that for?"

But Sonic was gone, already hovering overtop of the unconscious life form on the beach. He flipped it onto its back, and was both shocked and amazed at what he saw.

It was a small, humanoid vulpine; battered and bruised, but still alive. Even though Sonic could see that it couldn't possibly be more than six years old, he could tell that it was a female, since its fur on the back of her head was fashioned into a pair of crudely made pigtails, jetting out from about where her skull met the back of her neck. She was wearing a badly worn red jumpsuit, which the seawater had soaked completely through and had an unusual unworn piece on the left shoulder (apparently where a patch of some kind had fallen off), and purple shoes with a pink horizontal stripe across the top (which were also soaked). She wore gloves like Sonic, though the collars were boxy and golden. They also appeared to be made of aluminum. The most defining feature of her, however, was her fur. Besides the tip of her single tail, her muzzle, and the inside of her ears (which were all white), the vixen's fur was the absolute brightest and most vivid shade of fuchsia that Sonic had ever seen, even though it was doused with seawater, matted down, and had multiple patches of sand clinging to it.

Now, by no means whatsoever was Sonic emotional. He had been able to hold back tears in some of the saddest moments of his life. But now, looking down at this pitiful, unconscious girl, soaked by the surf and probably left for dead, he was fighting to hold back the waterworks. He reached down to touch her outstretched palm.

She was cold. Ice cold. Sonic couldn't believe that someone that cold to the touch could still be alive and breathing. As a gift of respect, he began to brush off some of the sand clinging to her fur gently with his hand.

After Sonic had brushed away one of the patches of sand, he thought that he saw the girl's mouth twitch, as if she was responding to his touch.

"…Hello?" he asked her calmly. "Anybody home?"

The most pitiful whimper Sonic had ever heard escaped the young fox's mouth. Gradually, so slowly that Sonic didn't even notice it at first, the little girl's eyes began to creak open and stopped halfway up. Her eyes were sky blue, much like Tails'.

Sonic breathed a sigh of relief as he stood up. He then turned around and waved to a still soggy Tails, who was attempting to purge the ballast tanks and the twin engines of the Waterspout.

"HEY, TAILS!" Sonic yelled, instantly getting Tails' attention. "GET OVER HERE, I FOUND SOMEONE!"

Tails looked shocked at the news. He then flung the Waterspout's anchor overboard, and began to run down the beach as fast as his twin tails would propel him. When he arrived at the site of the little girl, he became rather solemn just looking at her.

The girl was sitting up now, and she was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, her arms and legs curled up into her chest in a futile attempt to stay warm.

"Poor thing…" Tails said in a very sad voice. "She's chilled to the bone." He pointed to the anchored Waterspout. "There are some extra blankets on the ship. They're in a pelican case, so they should still be dry."

Sonic shook his head as he looked back down at the fuchsia-colored vixen, whose teeth were now chattering like a skeleton from the cold. "Tails," he said, "We can't just leave her out here all alone. Who knows what will happen to her?"

"Good point… hmm… maybe we could take her with us to town and see if anyone recognizes her?"

"That's actually not a half-bad idea, Tails." Sonic turned back to the girl, who was looking up at them pathetically. "Can you walk?" he asked her.

The girl, still shivering, nodded her head yes. She stood up shakily, but was able to walk to the anchored Waterspout without assistance. However, she seemed reluctant to get into the water in order to climb aboard the craft.

"I don't think she likes water," Tails noted.

"If I were that cold, I wouldn't like it much, either," Sonic remarked. He then got a great idea on how to bypass this little obstacle. "Hey, Tails, do you think you could fly her into the boat?"

"No problem!" Tails said as he started to spin his twin tails like a helicopter blade. In no time, he was hovering overtop of the smaller fox, who seemed interested in the fact that he could fly.

"Grab my hands and I'll lift you into the boat," he said to the girl.

The vixen made no movement, besides her shivering and following Tails intently with her eyes.

Tails smiled. "Don't worry," he consoled her, "I've done this before."

This seemed to kill any fear the fuchsia fox had of him, and she readily reached her hands out for Tails to grab them. It took Tails almost no extra effort at all to lift her; she couldn't have weighed more than half of what he did. When her feet touched the deck of the ship, she instantly sprinted over to Sonic and, to his surprise, hugged him.

"Thank you," she finally said; the first words she had said to Sonic or Tails since she woke up. Her voice reminded Sonic of Amy, though higher (but not as high as Cream's) and a lot more innocent.

Tails chuckled and pulled the Waterspout's anchor in. "Looks like you made a new friend," he said.

"Yeah," Sonic agreed as he wrapped the blankets around the fuchsia fox. "I guess I did."

* * *

><p>About a half-hour later, the young kit was fast asleep with her head resting on Sonic's shoulder. Sonic couldn't help noticing that there was a quaint smile on her face as she dozed.<p>

"Hey, Tails?" he asked Tails, his gaze not leaving the young fox's content expression. "Do you know what's the odd part about all this?"

"What?" Tails asked. Ever since the girl had fallen asleep, he had been asked to run the Waterspout at a lower volume.

"This girl practically loves me, and I don't even know her name."

"M-my… name?" The young kit's voice pierced the conversation for the second time since Sonic discovered her. Her sky-blue eyes creaked open, as if she had been listening to the entire conversation. "I-I…" she stuttered, trying to think.

Sonic looked down at the girl, who seemed to be turning her memory inside out trying to recall her name. Finally, she gave up trying, and let out a pitiful sigh.

"I can't remember anything…" she admitted.

Sonic's eyes widened. "Nothing?" he questioned.

"N-no… the last thing I-I can remember is when you woke me up on the beach." One of her ears perked up, as if she heard something over the engine noise. "Did… did you hear that?" she asked, stiff as a board.

Tails' ears perked up as well. "I do hear something," he stated. "It sounds like… kitchen knives?"

Sonic, whose ears were not as sensitive to sound as the foxes', took this as a warning and began scanning around the craft for any sign of danger. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary was a school of fish in the Waterspout's wake. That alone still wasn't too out of the ordinary – until one of them leapt out of the water. Sonic gasped at what he saw.

They weren't fish at all.

They were ROBOTS.

"CHOPPERS!" Sonic screamed. He flopped down into his seat and strapped himself in. He then turned to the little girl. "Hold onto me for dear life," he ordered.

The young kit obliged willingly, and wrapped her arms around Sonic in a death grip.

Sonic then turned to Tails, who was looking at the school of mechanical Choppers behind them. "Floor it, Tails!" he yelled.

Tails gave Sonic a thumbs-up before slamming the throttle forward as far as it would go, sending the Waterspout careening forward in an insane burst of speed. The Choppers, however, weren't about to give up the chase that easily. They began to swim even faster than before, making them look like tiny torpedoes with teeth.

Sonic, noticing that the Choppers were still on their tail, showed signs of panicking. "Come on, Tails!" he commanded, his arm wrapped around the fuchsia kit beside him. "Go faster!"

"This is full throttle!" Tails shouted back.

"I don't care! Just get us away from… look out!"

The chase had made the craft stray into Ocean Palace Zone, and Tails narrowly avoided crashing into a large pillar rising out of the water. Tails had no time to relax, though, since more ruins were rising out of the water in front of them. He cleared two more ruins easily, but cut the third turn wide, sending up sparks as the side of the  
>Waterspout scraped the rocky face of the walls surrounding them.<p>

"EEEEEEEK!" the young girl screamed as the sparks flew around her.

Even with all of this fancy power steering that Tails was doing, the Choppers were now less than five feet away from the Waterspout. In fact, one of the robotic piranhas actually leaped out of the water and began gnawing on the craft's stern.

"Hey!" Sonic shouted to the fish. "Get lost!" He then proceeded to punch the living daylights out of the Chopper, before it released its grip on the Waterspout's stern and fell back into the water.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled, frantically swerving back and forth to avoid the ruins rising up in front of them. "Time to initiate Plan B!"

"Plan B?" Sonic questioned. "_What the heck is Plan B_?"

Without answering, Tails flipped up a glass case that held a yellow and black striped button. As soon as he pressed the button inside, Sonic heard a horrible grinding sound from inside of the Waterspout. Just as he was thinking that Tails had gone insane and pressed a self-destruct button, a pair of wings began to emerge out of the sides of the Waterspout. At the same time, two already-running jet engines rose out of the sides of the passenger compartment, and a tail/stabilizer combo appeared near the back of the craft.

Sonic was dumbfounded. "This thing is a PLANE, too?" he asked, not believing what he was seeing. It might have been his imagination playing tricks on him, but as soon as Sonic uttered the word "plane", the little girl's grip seemed to tighten and her eyes seemed to widen in fear.

Tails again took no heed of Sonic's question. "Get ready to fly!" he said as he pulled back on the steering wheel. Suddenly, the Waterspout lifted itself out of the water, narrowly avoiding both another jumping Chopper and a ruin that rose out of the water in front of them. The school of Choppers, however, was not quick enough to dodge the ruin that just appeared, and promptly plowed headfirst into it, smashing them all.

"AAAAAAAAH!" the fuchsia fox screamed in terror as she felt the Waterspout go airborne, her eyes squeezed shut in fear.

"It's okay!" Sonic comforted her, patting his hand on her back. "We're away from the bad robots now. See for yourself!"

"Not until we're back on the ground!" she cried, her grip so tight on Sonic that he thought that he wasn't going to be able to breathe.

* * *

><p>True to her word, the kit didn't open her eyes once until Tails had landed the Waterspout on a small lake nearby Emerald Town, and that was a full fifteen minutes away. When she did open them, Sonic could see tears welling up in them, obviously from sheer terror. She was trembling violently, and her ears were folded back in fear. He wondered why she would be so afraid of airplanes.<p>

"Please…" she pleaded to empty air, "please don't make me fly again…"

"It's okay," Tails tried to soothe her, "We're on the grou-err… I mean, water now."

Whether Tails' technicalities made any difference or not, the little girl burst into tears, soaking her now-dry muzzle once again.

Sonic sighed as he lifted her onto dry land, while she still bawled as hard as ever. "Come on," he said as he clambered out of the literal flying boat. "Let's see if we can find what to do with you."

Her crying slowed to a small leak when she heard Sonic's voice. Sonic noticed this, and guessed to himself that his voice probably comforted her. As the trio walked toward their friends' houses, he took note of how she looked now. She wasn't shivering violently from the cold anymore, but her red jumpsuit was, amazingly, still damp. Her fur still had patches of sand in it as well.

"Um, Tails… right?" she said to Tails, trying to recall his name. Her ears were pointed straight up in the air, a sign that she was listening to some unknown noise. "I think you left the boat running."

Tails looked at her cockeyed. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "I have the key right here." He threw the key up out of his hand so that it caught the light, before letting it fall back into his open palm. "See?"

Her ears folded back in fear at the response. "Then," she gulped, "what's that engine sound?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Engine noise?" he questioned. "What are you-?"

As if to answer said question (or rather, un-said question), a large, chrome plated hoverbike roared out from behind the trio, nearly crushing them all. The little girl froze in fear when she saw what was driving it.

The pilot of the chrome and blue hoverbike was a large, humanoid robot. It had no skin, or even armor plating for that matter, so every wire, gear, spring, bolt, and piston shone in the sunlight. Its only decorations were a small, star shaped piece of gold over its robotic chest and a metal mockery of a police officer's hat, embellished with the Eggman Army crest. Its visor had been fashioned to look like a pair of sunglasses, and in the middle of each "lens" was a glowing red eye.

"_Targets acquired_," it rasped in a static-infused voice. "_Preparing to terminate._"

"RUN!" Sonic screamed as he grabbed the fuchsia kit's arm and began to book it down the street, with Tails nipping at his heels. The girl, not prepared for the sudden burst of speed, began to stumble, trying to keep up the pace with the world's fastest hedgehog. Sensing that its targets were trying to escape, the robotic sheriff flipped on a pair of blue and red flashing lights.

"_HALT!_" it commanded. Seeing that it was being ignored, the robot revved the engine on its hoverbike and shot after the "suspects".

Normally, Sonic would easily be able to outrun this metal mockery of a police officer, but since he also had to tow the fuchsia kit behind him, the robo-cop began to gradually gain on them.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled over the wind, noticing that Sonic wasn't running as fast as usual. "What's wrong?"

"It's hard to run as fast as I normally do with Miss Fuchsia here dragging me down!" Sonic said, making up a name for the girl on the fly.

The purple kit didn't like the idea of her being the reason that the robotic sheriff was going to run them over. "_I know I can run faster than this_," she thought as she stumbled behind Sonic. "_But how_?" For a reason she didn't even comprehend, she glanced down at her right glove's collar. Suddenly, her surroundings completely changed, from a high-speed chase in Emerald Town to her standing still in a metal workshop. Even though she still felt as if she was still being pulled by Sonic, still felt the wind rushing by her, and still felt as though she was about to trip and fall face first on the pavement, her hands and feet appeared motionless.

"_What the…?_" she thought. Without her wanting it to, her left arm reached over and pressed a hidden button on her right glove's collar. Suddenly, wheels began to fold out from her shoes (three inline wheels per shoe), transforming them into roller skates. As swiftly as it had begun, her surroundings changed again, back to the high-speed chase in the town, with her still stumbling behind Sonic.

By this time, the cop-bot had gotten dangerously close to Sonic and Co., and the front end of the speeder was a mere fifteen feet away from their heels.

After the little girl had regained her senses, she struggled to pull her loose right arm up to where Sonic had pinned her left arm so that she could see if the button she had seen was real. It took every ounce of strength she had to pull herself up so that her left arm could press the button on her right collar (if it even existed), and multiple times she stumbled again, and all of her hard effort was wasted. Determined to help Sonic out, she tried one more time with the last amount of her arm strength. Only inches remained between her left index finger and her right glove's collar when…

Click.

The button WAS real. She'd pressed it. A smile of relief spread across her face as the wheels began to extend out of the bottom of her soles. When the wheels were fully extended, she began to start skating, as if by instinct. It took a lot of work at first, but she soon felt herself getting into a sort of pattern. Left… then right… then left again… faster and faster and faster all the time… and when she felt that she was going fast enough to keep up with Sonic, she broke his grip on her arm.

The instant Sonic felt the girl break off from him, he felt a wave of despair crash into his heart. That is, until he saw a six-year-old fox roller skate in front of him, a big grin of happiness on her face.

"WHAT?" Sonic yelled, startled at the sight.

"Come on, slowpoke!" she taunted him ash she skated even faster away from the hedgehog. "Catch me if you can!"

Now it was Sonic's turn to smile. "You wanna make that a bet?" he remarked as he sped after her, Tails following behind.

Who could blame the little girl for being excited? In the entire time she could remember, Sonic and Tails had controlled what she had done. This was the first time she was in control of her own actions. It was exhilarating. It was liberating. It was…

"Look out!"

Tails' voice shattered her sense of happiness as a small stone bridge came into view. The only path underneath the arch bridge was a mere three feet in height and diameter.

The fuchsia kit covered her eyes in fear. "Waaaaah!" she screamed as she coasted underneath of the bridge, with Sonic and Tails right behind her.

The robot, however, was much too large to be able to fit through the tiny gap, and was instead flung from its bike as it crashed into the stone bridge.

"_ERROR! ERROR!_" it screamed as the sheriff plowed face first into the pavement, igniting its fuel source. The resulting explosion completely demolished the robot, as well as most of the road. The only recognizable part left was its dented, charred "police hat".

"YES!" Tails exclaimed, throwing his fists into the air in celebration. "We did it, Sonic!"

The little girl snowplowed to a stop, sparks flying out from under the wheels of her skates. Just by the grin she wore, Sonic was surprised that she was the same little fox that he had found on the beach an hour earlier. In fact, now that he noticed it, her suit wasn't even the slightest bit damp.

The kit bowed her head as Sonic coasted to a stop in front of her. "…Sonic?" she said, in the same voice that she had thanked him with earlier. Her eyes were closed, as though she was in deep thought.

"Yeah?" the hedgehog responded as Tails screeched to a halt behind him.

"Do you remember that name you used for me earlier?"

"Miss Fuchsia?" He waved her off with a flip of his hand. "Don't worry about it. We'll find a better name for you…"

"No. I like it."

Sonic shot the girl a look. "Isn't it, you know, a little wordy?" he asked her.

"No, silly! 'Fuchsia.' That's my name."

Sonic smiled. Fuchsia. Somehow the name suited her. Actually, he wouldn't be surprised if it was her _real_ name.

"All right, Fuchsia," he said to the purple kit, motioning her and Tails towards Tails' Lab. "Time to figure out what to do with you."

* * *

><p><strong>Whew, that was exhausting. In case you haven't noticed, the OC I mentioned is Fuchsia the Fox. If you did notice, well, you win an e-cookie! If you didn't, well, get some glasses or something.<strong>

**Let's hope I can get the next chapters out in a reasonable timeframe. Until then, please review!**


	2. The Nightmare

**I'm baaaaaaack! After months of trying to find time to type this thing, Chapter 2 of Project F is up and running! (insert fanfare here)**

**Fuchsia: Well, it' about time, M1!**

**FUCHSIA? What're you doing outside of the main story?**

**Fuchsia: Complaining! What does it look like?**

**(stares at Fuchsia awkwardly) Have you been hanging out with PFoC, again?**

**Fuchsia: How'd you know?**

**Lucky guess. That, and the sarcasm. Oh, and before I forget: _I do not own SEGA, Sonic Team, or any characters that are owned by the above companies Claiming them as my own would be illegal. And rather rude._**

* * *

><p>"So you seriously can't remember a thing before I woke you up?" Sonic asked as he, Fuchsia, and Tails approached Tails' Lab.<p>

"No…" Fuchsia admitted sheepishly with a shrug. "I can't remember anything… my past… my name…" Tears began to well up in the kit's eyes once again. "…My family…"

Tails noticed that the waterworks were about to begin. "No, no, no, don't cry," he consoled Fuchsia. "We'll find your parents if it's the last thing we do. Right, Sonic?"

Sonic drew an "X" on his chest with his finger. "Cross my heart," he said with a smile, "and swear to die."

Fuchsia smiled back as the tears dried away.

"Hey, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, Tails?"

"What are we going to do if we can't find Fuchsia's parents today? We don't have a place for her to stay."

Sonic stopped walking as the question rang in his mind. "Hmm…" he pondered, scratching his head in thought. "I don't exactly know…"

"Oh, SOOOOOONIC!"

Sonic jumped. "Yikes!" he yelled. "It's Amy!" He turned to the two foxes as he charged up a Super Peel-Out. "I gotta make myself scarce! Good luck finding Fuchsia's family, Tails!" And, just like that, Sonic was off, throwing up a cloud of dust behind him.

Tails was outraged at Sonic for ditching him and Fuchsia like that. "SONIC!" he shouted, his hands cupped over his mouth. "We still need to find a place for Fuchsia to stay!"

"Who's Fuchsia?"

Both foxes turned around to see a rather tired Amy staring down at them, propping her right arm up on her hammer like a crutch.

"Oh! Hi, Amy!" Tails greeted, somewhat surprised at the pink hedgehog's sudden appearance. "If you're looking for Sonic, you just missed him."

"So he's not here?" Amy asked, before stomping her foot on the pavement. "Dang it!"

"I know how you feel. He ditched me when we were supposed to be looking for this little girl's family." Tails pointed to Fuchsia.

Amy looked where Tails was pointing and finally noticed the young, pink kit standing half-next to him, half-behind him.

"Aw…" Amy cooed, kneeling down to Fuchsia's level. "Aren't you just the cutest little thing?"

Fuchsia giggled.

Amy looked back up at Tails. "What's her name?" she asked him.

Tails shrugged. "We don't know her real name, but she likes to be called Fuchsia," he said as he turned to Fuchsia. "Fuchsia, this is Amy Rose. She loves Sonic, but according to Sonic, it's a one-sided relationship."

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Amy growled, glaring at Tails.

"Aah!" Tails screamed, his hands flying up to protect himself. "She also scares me when she does this!"

Fuchsia laughed at Tails' predicament. Even though she had just met her, Fuchsia felt some sort of deep bond with Amy. It's as if they just clicked together.

Her rage subsided, Amy returned to her cheery self. "So why did you say that you don't know her REAL name, anyways?" she questioned.

Fuchsia went sullen. "I-I can't remember anything…" she admitted, in the same sheepish tone she had when Sonic asked the same question.

"What?" Amy said in disbelief, before turning to Tails. "Please elaborate."

"She has total amnesia," Tails stated. "She must've damaged her cerebral cortex before we found her."

"So she can't remember a thing?"

"Well, not exactly. She still has excellent fine motor skills, and an apparent case of aerophobia, so she apparently retained SOME memories of her past. Sonic and I were looking for her parents in Emerald Town until you showed up. Sigh… unfortunately; we don't have a place for her to stay until we do. I wish Sonic were still-"

"She could stay at my new house for a while," Amy interrupted.

Tails' eyes went wide. "Really?" he asked, not believing what he was hearing.

Amy nodded her head yes. "It's the least I could do for her," she said.

Fuchsia was so excited at the news that she did a back flip out of joy. "Yay!" the pink kit exclaimed.

Tails was also excited, but he had something else on his mind as well. "That's great," he said to Amy, "but I need you to make sure that you both come by my lab tomorrow morning. I want to make sure Sonic knows that Fuchsia's staying with you until we find her family."

Amy grinned. "Does that mean that Sonic will be there?" she half-asked, half-swooned.

Tails' started to sweat at the question. "Uh…" he stuttered, "I guess…"

"Okay!" Amy confirmed. "We'll be there!"

Fuchsia laughed again.

* * *

><p>Amy's new house (she had moved out of her apartment in Station Square not long ago) was a very pretty two-story Cape Cod, if you could get past the hot pink paint scheme she had added. The inside was also pink, though it was more of a pastel pink. The furniture was either purple or cherry red in coloration (it depended on the room). However, to Fuchsia, the inside could've been rainbow-colored and she wouldn't have cared. From what her memory recalled, this was the first time she had ever been inside a building, and she was fascinated.<p>

Apparently, Fuchsia was a little TOO fascinated at being indoors, because Amy was starting to think something was wrong.

"Hello?" she asked, waving her hand in front of the kit's face. "You okay?"

Fuchsia snapped back into reality. "Oops!" she apologized. "Sorry, I've never been inside before. Or… at least in what I can remember."

"Oh, no, I should be the one saying sorry. I forgot how little you remember now. Practically everything is new to you."

The kit shrugged. "I guess…"

Amy chuckled. "Well," she said, "this is the living room. Over there is the TV on that media shelf…" – she pointed to the HDTV sitting on top of a shelf in the corner – "… and there's a bookcase in the other corner. Now, PLEASE do not read the diary I keep over there."

"Why?" Fuchsia asked, seriously not knowing the answer.

"It's private. Now-" Amy pointed to the room next to the living room – "that's the kitchen over there. There's also a bathroom over there as well, along with the dining room."

"Where's my room?" Fuchsia asked.

"Upstairs," Amy answered as she began to walk up the flight of stairs. "Come on, I'll show you!"

Fuchsia followed Amy up the stairs like a puppy follows a little child home. On the second floor, they walked past a room with a picture of Sonic thumb tacked to it (which Fuchsia correctly guessed was Amy's room), a full bathroom, and stopped at a white door at the end of a hallway.

"This," Amy said, "is your room."

Amy opened the door, revealing a purple-colored room with a royal blue bed and closet doors in the same shade. The vanity and the chest of drawers were also blue, but the curtains covering the window were, appropriately, fuchsia.

"Wow!" Fuchsia exclaimed, looking around the room in awe. "This is amazing!"

"This is where I keep my old clothes from when I was younger," Amy noted, "so you can look around and see if any of them fit. You probably want to change out of that torn, beat-up jumpsuit, don't you?"

It was only then did Fuchsia get a really good look at what she was wearing. The collars of the suit were frayed and torn, there was a rip in the suit below her left knee, and it stank of low tide. It was also generally uncomfortable… actually; it felt rather gritty, too.

"Amy?" Fuchsia asked. "Do you think I could take a bath, first?"

"Why?" Amy responded, puzzled at the comment.

Fuchsia pulled at the waist of the jumpsuit, letting it snap back into place afterward. "I think I have sand where sand should never be."

Amy winced slightly. "Okay," she agreed. "I'll help you pick out clothes, afterward." With that, Fuchsia strolled out of the room towards the upstairs bathroom as Amy went down the stairs to the living room.

When Amy was sure that Fuchsia hadn't followed her downstairs, Amy grabbed a pencil and her diary off of the shelf, and began to write:

_Dear Diary,_

_ Normally, I would be writing about how I came __**thisclose**__ to seeing Sonic today, but something else happened today that was a little more interesting. While I was looking for Sonic today near Tails' Lab, I found Tails standing next to a little, fuchsia-colored fox. Her name is Fuchsia, after her fur color, and it turns out that she lost her memory somehow. Tails told me that she also didn't have a place to stay, so I offered to let her stay with me in the spare bedroom._

Amy was about to start writing the next sentence when she realized something she had forgotten.

"Fuchsia!" she yelled. "Don't turn the right knob or else the water's…"

"Aah!" Fuchsia screamed from the upstairs bathroom.

"…Cold." Amy finished with a sigh.

* * *

><p>Lights were flashing.<p>

Alarms were blaring.

And Fuchsia was running for her life.

She was running through a metallic labyrinth away from some unknown terror. She wanted to know what was making such a malicious noise, but feared slowing down if she looked back.

"Don't let her get away!" a foreboding voice behind her said, prompting the kit to run even faster away. She frantically looked around for an escape route-

There! An open window!

Freedom!

Fuchsia skidded around a corner as she made a beeline for the window. When she was within a few feet of the window, she jumped and dove cleanly out the window and away from the terror.

And she started falling.

Fuchsia had to be over a mile in the air (without a parachute!) and was closing the surface of the ocean fast. The kit was so overwhelmed with sheer terror that she felt as though she was going to throw up. She screamed at the top of her lungs for someone to save her, ANYONE, as she came closer and closer to her watery grave. But there was no one to be found, and the ocean came closer and closer, until-

KRAK-KABOOM!

* * *

><p>Fuchsia shot straight up in her bed in a cold sweat. She was panting heavily, and her new white and blue nightgown was partially stained with sweat around her neck. Rain was pounding down on the window outside her room, the darkness only split temporarily by jagged bursts of lightning.<p>

Fuchsia felt a tear run down her cheek. "It was only a bad dream," she tried to reassure herself, repeating it over and over with little effect.

Suddenly, Amy burst into the room, wearing a pink nightgown and holding her hammer over her head. Fuchsia, already shaken from the nightmare, was almost scared to death at Amy's sudden entrance (literally, she felt her heart skip a beat or two).

"What's going on?" Amy questioned. "What's wrong?"

"Amy!" Fuchsia cried as she leaped out of bed and ran over to the pink hedgehog. No sooner had she wrapped her arms around Amy did Fuchsia practically explode into tears. "It was so scary!" she bawled. "It-it felt so REAL!"

"I could guess," Amy said to Fuchsia, the kit's tears beginning to soak through the front of her pink nightgown. "You were screaming in your sleep."

"I-I was?"

Amy picked Fuchsia up and placed her gently back onto her bed. "What was the bad dream about?"

The more Fuchsia told Amy about her nightmare, the more concerned Amy grew – and the harder Fuchsia cried. By the time Fuchsia had gotten to where she was falling through the sky, her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

Amy, a little shaken from Fuchsia's unusually vivid detail, patted the kit on the back to calm her. "There, there," she soothed her, "no need to cry. It was only a dream."

Fuchsia's crying didn't slow a drop. Amy thought about letting the pink kit sleep in her room for the night, but then got an even better idea.

"Wait here," Amy said, placing her hands on Fuchsia's shoulders. The hedgehog then stood up from her kneeling position and walked calmly out of the room towards her bedroom.

Fuchsia sniveled as she waited for Amy to return. However, the longer she waited, the more the darkness and the storm went to her head. She felt as if the monster from her dream was hiding somewhere nearby, ready to attack her at any moment…

SLAM!

"Aah!" Fuchsia screamed as Amy slammed the door to her room open again. The kit then turned to face the door, half-enraged, half-petrified. "Stop doing that!"

Fuchsia calmed instantly as she caught sight of what Amy was holding in her hands. It was a small, plush doll of Tails, crafted out of yellow and white cloth.

"I thought you might want someone to stay with you during the night," Amy said as she offered the doll to Fuchsia. Fuchsia readily took the doll in her hands and gazed into its white thread and blue button eyes. It seemed to have an eerily soothing effect on the kit.

"I…" Fuchsia stuttered, trying to find the words but failing.

Amy smiled. "Love it?" she finished Fuchsia's sentence for her.

Fuchsia simply smiled back as Amy tucked her back into her bed. "Now, promise me you won't be scared anymore, okay?" Amy asked.

"Yawn…" Fuchsia yawned, her eyelids starting to lazily fall shut. "Of course, Amy… Mini-Tails will protect me…"

_Aww_, Amy thought. _She already has a name for that little doll_.

"Goodnight… Amy…" Fuchsia mumbled as she drifted off to sleep once again.

As she tiptoed to the door, Amy looked back at the sleeping kit. She had a pleasant smile on her face, and the light from the hallway was reflecting off of Mini-Tails' button pupils, the doll's head nestled in the crook of Fuchsia's arm.

"Goodnight, Fuchsia," Amy said as she slowly closed the door.

* * *

><p>"Come ON, Fuchsia!" Amy yelled to the kit from the bottom of the steps. "We're going to be late!" Secretly, Amy was just as excited to see Fuchsia in her new clothes, as she was to see Sonic at Tails' Lab later that morning.<p>

"I'm coming!" Fuchsia responded as she hopped down the stairs, two at a time. When she reached the bottom step, Amy took a moment to reflect on Fuchsia's new appearance.

Fuchsia had thrown away the trashy red jumpsuit she had been found in, and was now wearing a sleeveless purple dress with a white collar and frill that came down to about the kit's knees. Her once scraggly pigtails had been brushed, braided and spritzed with enough hairspray to make them stand up by themselves, and each ended in a white hair-tie that made the loose fur on the ends fan out like a paintbrush's bristles. The fur on the top of her head had also been styled into a wavy shape that ended in a fine point. She still wore the same gloves and shoes as before, although they had been cleaned and shined beforehand. She also wore a pair of bright pink socks underneath her shoes.

"Well?" she asked, spinning three-sixty on one foot.

"Perfect!" Amy replied, making her hands into a frame. "Now come on, Sonic will be at Tails' Lab any minute!"

"Why are you always thinking about Sonic if Tails said he didn't like you?" Fuchsia asked innocently.

"HE DOES TOO LIKE ME!" Amy screamed as she bolted off towards the lab, leaving the pink kit in the dust by mistake.

Fuchsia blinked. "Was it something I said?"

* * *

><p>When the duo arrived at Tails' Lab, the first thing they saw outside of the building (which was fashioned in the shape of Tails' head) was Sonic sleeping peacefully in a hammock, his arms propped up behind his head and one of his legs dangling out of the side. He had to be asleep, Fuchsia guessed, or else he would've run away at the first sight of Amy.<p>

"Hi, Sonic!" Fuchsia and Amy yelled simultaneously.

"Whoa!" Sonic shouted as he snapped awake, his arms and legs flailing around in surprise. Unfortunately for him, a hammock is not designed for that much movement, and he promptly flipped out of it, landing with a painful thud.

Fuchsia, concerned about what happened, ran over and lifted the hedgehog's head off of the ground.

"Sonic!" she cried. "Are you okay?"

"Ow…" Sonic groaned as he rose to his feet, rubbing his injured head. "What hit me?" Suddenly, the blue hedgehog froze in place, finally spotting Amy a few feet away from him.

"Hi, Sonic, dearie!" Amy cooed as she waved hello.

"Err…" Sonic stuttered as he tried to figure out just what the heck was going on.

Just then, the doors on Tails' Lab flew open, and Tails appeared out of them. The twin-tailed fox lit up when he saw that all three of his guests were there.

"Sonic! Amy! Fuchsia!" he exclaimed. "You're here!"

This made Sonic even more puzzled. "Wait…" he stammered at Tails, pointing to Amy. "You invited her here?"

"Long story," Tails hastily explained. "I'll tell you inside."

* * *

><p>Inside, Tails was working on the Waterspout's engine while Fuchsia watched him intently. Amy had explained why she was at the lab to Sonic, and the pink and blue hedgehogs were now in the other room, no doubt the latter trying to avoid a kiss from the former.<p>

Meanwhile, Fuchsia was almost spellbound by Tails' handiwork. Having total amnesia, everything was new to her, and, like most six-year-olds, everything new was enticing.

"Whatcha doing?" Fuchsia asked Tails, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.

"Trying to modify the Waterspout's engine so that it will run at full power," Tails explained, not looking up from his work. "The thing is, I can't seem to figure out what's wrong with it. Maybe it has something to do with the pistons, here…"

PIKO-KEERASH!

"Amy!" Sonic yelled from the other room. "Watch where you're swinging that thing!"

Tails sighed. "I'll be right back," he said as he placed his wrench down on his tool-bench before going to repair whatever Amy's hammer broke.

The instant that Tails walked through the door, a naughty idea came to Fuchsia's mind. What if SHE helped Tails with the engine before he came back? It didn't seem all that hard. When Fuchsia was positive that Tails wasn't coming back anytime soon, she leaped over the tool-bench into his workplace. Remembering that Tails had said something about the pistons being the weak link, she picked up the wrench and began to loosen up the bolts on the pistons – but not too much; she didn't want one flying through someone's head while the engine was running. Next, she added some grease to the sides of the pistons so that they would slide easier. However, while she was inspecting the engine, she noticed something extremely odd. According to the current position of the pistons, the spark plugs wouldn't be firing at the right time for maximum power. THAT must've been why the engine couldn't outrace those fishy-robot things they had ran from yesterday. Unplugging the battery from the engine, Fuchsia moved the pistons _ever so slightly_ to the positions that would give the best compression ratio when the plugs fired. She then quickly plugged the battery back in and, deciding that Tails would be back any moment, turned around to go back to her seat.

And ran right into Tails' nose.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked her in a stern voice.

"Uh…" Fuchsia stuttered, stiff as a board as she tried to fabricate a decent excuse to be messing with the Waterspout's engine.

Tails lifted Fuchsia out of the workspace and plopped her back into her original seat. "You shouldn't be playing around in my lab," he scolded, inspecting the engine. "You could get-"

Tails stopped cold as he saw what Fuchsia did to the engine. According to his calculations, she hadn't ruined the engine at all. In fact, she actually… made it BETTER.

"I don't believe it…" Tails said in awe. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "SONIC! AMY!" he yelled. "Fuchsia fixed the Waterspout for me!"

Being the world's fastest hedgehog, it took Sonic no time at all to rush into the room where the foxes were. Amy was right on his heels.

"What's this about Fuchsia fixing something?" Sonic questioned.

"Fuchsia fixed the engine on the Waterspout in less than a minute!" Tails exclaimed, almost hysterical with excitement.

"WHAT?" Amy gasped, shocked by the news. "Is this true, Fuchsia?"

"Well, yeah," Fuchsia admitted. "It was rather easy. I also would've tried to make the purge system automatic, but I didn't have enough time…" Out of the corner of her eye, Fuchsia spotted a grease stain covering the back of her glove. She then reflexively glanced down at her dress, and, lo and behold, there were at least five more oil and grease stains dotting the fabric. "Oh no! My glove! My dress!" she cried.

Amy grabbed the kit by her unsoiled hand and began to lead her out of the lab. "Come on," she said as the girls walked out of the front door, "let's get your dress washed before it sets up."

Tails shook his head. "Girls…" he sighed.

"I know, right?" Sonic responded, before looking towards the front door. "What I don't get, though, is how Fuchsia was able to even know HOW to fix the Waterspout. I don't have any clue about what Step 1 would be, and I'm almost ten years older than her!"

"She has to be some kind of genius to be able to fix it that quickly – not to mention her saying that she was going to automate the purge system!"

"Really? Wow, I can't believe I didn't catch that."

"Of course, I'll have to run some tests to see how intelligent she really is. I'll see if Amy can bring her back here tomorrow for them."

"By the way, Tails, did you ever find Fuchsia's parents?"

"No. In fact, no one in Emerald Town has even seen Fuchsia before."

Sonic rubbed his chin thoughtfully, before snapping his fingers. "Maybe not in Emerald Town," he said, "but I think I know someone in Casino Strip who might."

"Really?" Tails asked. "Who?"

"Why our friendly, neighborhood government spy, of course."

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed the new chapter. Sorry about the half-year wait, though. I don't get that much time to type these things, but I'm already up to Chapter <em>16<em> in hand-writing Project F. I blame global warming.**

**Please review! Oh, and tell me if Fuchsia escapes the story again. I need to keep an eye on her until her shock collar comes in from Ebay.**

**Fuchsia: It has.**

**Really? Then where IZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAOOOOOOW! (glares at Fuchsia) You swapped it with my belt this morning, didn't you?**

**Fuchsia: (holding shock collar remote) I have NO idea what you're talking about.**


End file.
